Acken is a country located to the east of Jirgs, it has become one of the biggest metropolis, -second only to the Jirgs kingdom- due to the small distance between Acken and it’s neighboring countries located to the east.
Foreign travelers, people from within the country, and merchants talking and trading with each other, are making it a lovely and bustling town.
“Well then, it’s a different kind of liveliness than the capital.”
Lize says, after entering the town of Acken while looking around and being moved.
“So, we’ve arrived at Acken, but what are we going to do now?”
“Let’s see, since we’re going to stay for a while, first would be an inn……”
“Hey, I just heard an interesting story!”
Seran, who immediately went to get something to eat from the stalls, came back excitedly.
“Interesting?”
“Yeah, since the one coming to town tomorrow, is none other than princess Mirena.”
Kail’s eyes become round at Seran’s cheerful sounding voice.
“…….Are you serious?”
“Yeah, that’s right, the one called 『The treasure of Jirgs』.”
Kail makes a questioning face, in contrast to Seran’s merry feeling.
“She’s making her debut now. It doesn’t matter what you say, it’s still that “Treasure of Jirgs”, you know! I always wanted to see her at least once. I heard where she is, so let’s go and check it out.”
When Seran says that, he immediately begins to walk.
“So Kail, are you also going?”
Lize’s words had an interrogating sound to them, but he decided to ignore that.
“…….Well it’s worth a look at least. For one, we are also citizens of the Jirgs kingdom, if there is a chance to see the future queen’s face, I’d like to take it.”
I also want to ascertain something, is what I add inside my mind.
“…….You do have a point, then let’s go.”
Urza and the others don’t seem to have any complaints, so we all decided to go.
The mother god of Earth, Kairis, is the deity of Jirgs and most of the towns have a temple for her.
Also, if there is an orphanage within the temple, like the one in the town of Acken, the princess goes to it, to pay a consolatory visit.
By the time Kail and the others reached the temple, it was already crowded by many onlookers.
However, Seran plunged into the area where the children were gathered without any hesitation.
“There! Get out of the way! You brats! You guys are ten years too young for such a beauty!”
Mercilessly pushing the children away, while kicking, he continues.
“O-Oh, I’m sorry. I’ll give you this, so eat it.”
Kail, who followed behind him, was handing out the sweets he specially bought for Sildonia.
The children who were about to begin crying, immediately got a smile.
“The thing called: ‘having no shame’, has become strong it seems……”
“I absolutely don’t want to learn it…..”
“Myself’s sweets~……”
TL note: Sildonia says this, speaking in third person about her sweets. -Tensaiz
Urza and Lize also followed after a little while, but as expected it was a little embarrassing.
Beyond the crowd, the very first row was completely composed of the city guards, they have set up a perimeter, so no one could come closer.
In the center, clearly different from the city guards, what stood out were the silvery white plate armors they donned, they were knights with a simplified crest of a dragon on their chest.
That dragon crest is proof of Jirgs’s imperial knights, having it, means they are imperial knights.
The imperial knight squad of Jirgs, is made up of around a hundred knights, compared to other squadrons of knights they are few in numbers, but their mission is to protect the king, so they don’t need too many of them.
For that part, the whole squad is composed out of the few elites within the army, no one from the Jirg’s kingdom itself, those with a heart of loyalty and the elites among the elites were chosen from them.
Something only those that excel in martial arts and swear absolute loyalty can become, something everyone that wishes to become a knight yearns for, that is the imperial knight squad.
That imperial knight squad was patrolling the area with vigilance.
Well, it isn’t unreasonable since a person important to the king will momentarily pass by.
After a little while, the carriage that was being protected by the imperial knights, was moving in front of the orphanage.
The carriage was a luxurious white one, with gold and silver details on it, there, on the side was the royal family of Jirg’s lion crest standing out.
This is an indicator, that shows that this carriage is something that can only be ridden by royalty.
The horses pulling the carriage, are twice the size of normal horses, and this carriage is being carried by two eight legged demon horses called Sleipnir.
Untamed Sleipnirs are bad tempered and wild, they are hardly usable, but it’s an exception if they are raised for that purpose from childhood, these two are probably the same.
The guy that reverently opened the door of the carriage, looked like the leader of the imperial knights, and appeared to be in his mid-twenties.
When a young woman appears from within the carriage, the crowd starts to cheer loudly.
Beautiful clear eyes, perfectly shaped nose, pale vermillion lips, slender limbs, jet-black hair extending to the waist as if it was high quality silk, pale white skin…… Piece for piece, as if they were all goods of the highest quality, were found upon this miraculous young woman.
Wearing a light green dress and a silvery white tiara, which seemed to only be fit for royalty, but in the end they were only things that supported the beauty of the person wearing it.
If I have to name someone alike, Urza would come to mind, but it was as if her beauty was crafted by a master sword-smith, who made a well-honed sword, I wonder if it can be said that the princess has the same attractiveness as gems and gold, she just started walking slowly out of the carriage, however, she was a young woman who, with each and every movement she made, attracted the people with some kind of charisma.
She is truly the one, praised as “Jirg’s national treasure”, the first in line for the throne, princess Mirena do Jirgs.
“Yup, just as the rumors say, she is a beauty…… But above all….. That is amazing…..”
Seran sang, while he was looking at the rich twin hills, around the chest of the princess, which was slightly being shown.
“….. Comparing it, the difference in power is overwhelming. Dragon and lizard tears.”
This time, Seran makes a sign of grief, while looking at Lize’s lacking chest.
Immediately Lize grabs Seran’s chin with her open palm.
“E-Even though the only thing I did, was to express my honest impression and the facts….”
“Don’t think the truth is always right!”
Lize shouts at the crouching Seran.
“You guys, keep it down a little.”
Now Kail who didn’t want to stand out also let out a sigh.
In front of the orphanage, the children were forming in lines, and one of them, a little girl about ten years old, rushed over to the princess with a flower in her hand.
However maybe because of the tension, she tripped while she was running.
Then the princess put one of her knees on the soil filled ground and asked the little girl who became teary-eyed “are you alright?” With a gentle voice and smile.
Maybe because of that, but the tension dispersed and the girl answered “yes!” cheerfully with a smile on her face.
The crowd who saw what happened, naturally began to applaud.
The princess answered the applause, by waving her hand whilst wearing a gentle smile.
Leaving aside small countries, in a large country like Jirgs, there aren’t that many chances for royalty to come into close contact with the citizens like this, the only thing would be, if she could wave her hand at them from the balcony of the royal palace.
However, princess Mirena broke that stereotype, ambitiously participating in matters within the country, like public projects, and ceremonies, even when a disaster within the country happens, she will keep getting involved with the public.
For that reason, it could be said that she had great support from the citizens.
This time too, she participated in a festival from another town, she was supposed to return to the capital after that, however, the consolidatory visit to this orphanage in Acken was unplanned and was only made possible, because of the princess’s strong wish, so they had to change their plans.
This is what Kail overheard, from the conversation of some onlookers.
And the princess without breaking her elegant posture, went into the orphanage with the children while having a smile on her face.
Since Kail and his party completed their objective of seeing the princess, they left the crowd in order to find an inn for today.
“Well~, it’s that thing called satisfaction, you know. To think we would be able to see the princess in a place like this.
Seran says cheerfully.
“Certainly she was an amazing beauty…… especially…… those were amazing….”
Thinking back about the princesses that didn’t look the same age as her with her chest, she stopped trying to compare it to hers since she was getting sad.
“She’ll become the queen of a country right? Then if it wasn’t like that wouldn’t she be unable to do it?”
Being an Elf, Urza didn’t know much about the monarch’s of humans, but just what is the princess, I felt something different from her, that other humans don’t possess.
The three of them were talking about princess Mirena, who they just saw, while walking, but Kail was behind them seeming as if he was thinking about something.
He begins to talk with a small voice to Sildonia at his side.
“And, there is no mistake, it’s that princess?”
“Yeah there’s no mistake…… according to my memories Princess Mirena perished at 16 years old, when she was returning to the capital from Acken.
Kail was looking at the orphanage behind him.
When princess Mirena who was called the “treasure of Jirgs” perished, the whole country grieved about it.
The cause was an attack by a magical beast, the one who attacked her was a reptile with eight snake heads, the powerful magic beast, Hydra.
A Hydra is only second to a dragon, and a small village would perish within a day if it was attacked.
Actually, there are many magic beasts in the forest next to Acken, from time to time, there are people who get attacked when they take the road through the forest.
And about one month ago, it seems people were attacked by a Hydra, close to the town of Acken.
Seems it was a terrible thing, so a large scale extermination party was sent to kill it, but in the end, they were unable to exterminate it, is what I heard on the road to Acken.
“…….. However it would’ve been better, if I could remember the details some more.”
When Kail first heard of this, as a citizen he thought it was a pity, but he wasn’t that sad for the princess he had never seen before.
The only things he remembered was; when princess Mirena was going back to the capital from the town of Acken, she was attacked by a Hydra, and perished.
I’m also not sure about the date but it was around the eighth month, or something like that.
“According to my memories, it was supposed to be a little later…… But it seems we were just in time.”
Right now we just entered the seventh month, I thought we could go about it leisurely, but we were on the borderline.
“Is it different than your memories?”
“That seems the most likely. Or the rumor changed a little before it went around Rimaze…… but it’s not as if I remember it clearly.”
Kail grumbles while scratching his head.
Because it was vague, I wanted to investigate the town of Acken beforehand, but now it doesn’t seem like I have the time for it.
“It’s not as if we didn’t make it, so it’s alright, we just have to take action immediately.”
“Well, of course.”
“However, I would never have imagined the imperial guards, and one whole corps of them at that, to stay here as bodyguards.”
If you think about it, the princess who is the first in line for the throne, is away from the capital, having imperial guards with her as guards, it’s something you can take for granted.
Just now, I already saw a few dozen of them, there is probably a whole corps of around hundred, who came to guard her close by.
Then I remember the one who looked like the captain, at the princess’s side.
“……. He was here, yet he let the princess die? Why did it become like that?”
“Was there an acquaintance or something?”
“Something……. like that.”
Kail was scowling, thinking he didn’t want to remember the unpleasant past.
Certainly a Hydra may be a formidable foe, but it isn’t likely that the Imperial guards let the princess die, even though a whole armed corps of them were there.
Furthermore, there isn’t any need to defeat it, they were supposed to get the princess away even if it meant using their own bodies as shields, that too is one of the roles of an Imperial guard.
“Either there was something unexpected, or the Hydra was simply just too strong…..”
We have to properly make preparations, Kail thought.
“By the way, it’s a simple question but can you win against a Hydra?”
“I have fought with one before, and easily beat it at the time. Well, it was just an eight headed one.”
A Hydra increases its body size and number of heads the longer it lives, becoming stronger.
It is said, that if it has more than ten heads, it’s stronger than an unskilled awakened dragon.
“The me right now, can beat ten heads and below. Also, it’s not like I’m going to fight alone. At that time everyone and the Imperial guards will be there too.”
We’ll manage somehow, is what Kail said.
“Fumu, it’s certainly so. The you right now will be alright, so long as you don’t fight alone against a Hydra with more than ten heads. Well, a situation like that probably won’t occur.”
“……..Can you please not say things like that?”
Kail shut Sildonia up since he was having a bad feeling about it.
When I decided to become a Hero, the first thing I thought about was the princess’s death.
Appearing when the princess’s life is in danger, and saving her.
It was the perfect way, almost like something that happens in an epic story.
If I really was thinking about the safety of princess Mirena, then it would be normal to warn her beforehand, but I can’t and I won’t.
Even if I warn her, I won’t know if she would believe me or not, it’s more likely that I’ll be restrained as a suspicious person.
And most important of all, it wouldn’t have any meaning.
If I don’t save the princess when she gets attacked, and if possible at the last minute, she won’t be thankful enough.
Probably, because of it, other victims will be produced, but there is no other way.
“I’m sorry, but I’ll be using you…..”
Kail left the guilt he felt in a corner of his heart and looked back at the orphanage, where the princess was, bitterly muttering those words.